Christmas seems to have come tearing round the corner at around 100mph and it couldn’t come soon enough for me. Reaching the end of the year has completely exhausted me with tons of work including two new scripts for FOYLE’S WAR, being shot next February, plus original short stories for the New Statesman (PRISONER 2412 - you can find it in the Christmas edition) and the Sunday Times (THE OLD MAN OF N3, a horror story, it’ll appear in January), watching cuts of the 2009 TV series, COLLISION and working on the new Alex…about which, more in a moment.

OLD MAN OF N3, a rather grim tale about an MP3 player and the misery of getting old, will probably appear in my new collection of horror stories appearing on Halloween, 2009 which will be either my 35^th or my 36^th published book. COLLISION is an epic, five-part series based on a multiple pile-up on the A12 and I honestly think it’s the best work for television that I’ve done with a fantastic cast headed up by the brilliant Douglas Henshall (from Primeval) and featuring one of the most expensive car crashes ever filmed for TV. Oh…and can I mention that I’ve got a short play called A HANDBAG which will be doing the rounds as part of the National Theatres “Connections” programme next year? Do look out for it!

I was really happy that NECROPOLIS did well this summer and thanks to everyone who went out and bought it…around 190,000 of you, or so I’m told. Lots of people thought it was the best one in the series so far and I’m looking forward now to the fifth volume which will finish the adventure as each one of the five gatekeepers travels across the world to meet one final time…with civilisation crumbling all around them. Even I have no idea when the book will be finished but as it will probably be about 200,000 words long and will include a series of fairly epic battles, it could be a few years.

The important thing is to get on with Alex 8 and the good news is that the plot is more or less bolted down and, better still, I finally have a title and that’s the whole point of this brief Christmas message. Exactly one week from now I’ll be in Kenya, hopefully relaxing in the sun, but also searching out some of the locations – jungle, the villain’s island hideaway and a giant dam - because that’s where the second half of the book takes place. As for the title, I’ve been struggling for the last six months, searching for something short and snappy (quite literally as it turns out) and I’ve even been offering money when I’ve been on school visits although sadly with no success. 

Recently inspiration struck and finally, finally I have a title which I have actually concealed inside this blog and anyone who has read THE SHORTEST HORROR STORY EVER WRITTEN (More Horowitz Horror) will know how to find it.

So – I hope you like it and I wish everyone a fantastic Christmas and a prosperous, healthy New Year.

Anthony Horowitz